The Tuck

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

“There is no place for fear in this new world of ours, Mr. Peck. It can only hurt you, be used against you. I’m sure you see this; understand it better than I do. The question is: are you ready to feel better? To be free to be the man you were meant to be?” What would it mean to live a life free of fear? In The Tuck, we are introduced to Peck, a man who imagines himself able to effect such an escape by means of the titular surgical procedure. At once a chilling vision of a dystopian near-future and the perils of technological promise, The Tuck is also the story of a triangulated love affair and the conflict and complication it provokes. Through alternating points of view, we are offered a shifting perspective on the nature of friendship, romantic attachment, and the bonds of familial duty, exploring the inherent limits of love and the ways that we inevitably fail each other. It is a novel about the endless compromises and negotiations of which every life is comprised, the stories we tell to ourselves and others, and the hope inherent in our imperfect efforts to come to know a love that may redeem us, may free us from this fearful state.